Louisiana news briefs

148,000 sign up for coverage through federal marketplace
BATON ROUGE (AP) — More than 148,500 Louisiana residents have enrolled for health insurance through the federal marketplace, as the sign-up deadline nears.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the latest enrollment data Wednesday, covering insurance plan selections through the end of January. The numbers exceed last year, when about 102,000 Louisianians signed up through the enrollment period.
Of the people enrolled so far, more than one-third — about 52,000 — are in the metropolitan New Orleans area. Most of those who have signed up are eligible for federal subsidies to help cover their costs, according to the federal health department.
The insurance marketplace was created through President Barack Obama’s health overhaul. Enrollment began Nov. 15 and wraps up Feb. 15.

Sentencing hearing delayed in murder-for-hire case
PORT ALLEN (AP) — A state court judge has pushed back the sentencing date for the woman and hired gunman facing life sentences in prison for killing her husband in a murder-for-hire plot while they seek to have their verdicts overturned.
Judge Robin Free was forced to reset the sentencing date Wednesday for Monique Kitts, of Addis, and Karl Michael Howard, of Roswell, Georgia, to March 5 after her lawyer filed a last-minute motion asking for a post-verdict acquittal and new trial.
Howard’s public defender filed similar motions — all of which Free denied after resetting the sentencing date.
Kitts and Howard were both convicted of second-degree murder.
Prosecutors said Monique Kitts had her husband, Corey, killed so she could cash in on his employment benefits and life insurance

Plant seeks permit to emit mercury
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Noranda Alumina officials say they believe their nearly 55-year-old refinery in St. James Parish has been releasing mercury into the air without a permit, possibly since operations began in 1959.
The owners of the once-bankrupt Kaiser Aluminum complex on the Mississippi River are asking state regulators for permission to release up to 250 pounds of mercury per year.
State and federal records show that would make the plant one of the largest mercury polluters of Louisiana’s air.

Ag Dept. offers retirement incentive
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain is offering a retirement incentive — in lieu of job layoffs — as he tries to shrink employee payroll to cut budget expense.
The retirement incentive is part of Strain’s plan to comply with Jindal administration-directed cuts required to balance the current and next year’s state budget.
Civil Service director Shannon Templet gave the green light for Strain to offer the retirement incentive to his employees as a layoff avoidance measure.
Under the program, employees are paid a lump-sum benefit of a maximum of 50 percent of the agency savings in the 12-month period following the employee’s retirement date. The employees will retire before Feb. 13.

N.O. man pleads guilty to illegally dumping tires
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An Orleans Parish man has pleaded guilty to violating Louisiana’s Environmental Quality Act by illegally disposing of waste tires in New Orleans.
Authorities say 54-year-old Michele A. Morris, of New Orleans, entered the plea Wednesday and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, with credit for time served.
The Department of Environmental Quality says Morris illegally dumped solid waste in New Orleans in January 2013. His actions were uncovered during the course of an investigation into illegal dumping in the city.

Festival International lineup unveiled
LAFAYETTE (AP) — Festival International de Louisiane’s lineup for 2015 includes musicians from Africa, Canada, Mexico, Ukraine and, of course, Lafayette.
This year’s headliners include Anjélque Kidjo from Benin, Ukrainian folk-punk quartet DakhaBrakha, Portland’s MarchFourth Marching Band, Quebec’s Nomadic Massive, Lafayette’s own GIVERS and Buckwheat’s World featuring Buckwheat Zydeco.
This year marks a long-awaited return to Lafayette for Grammy Award-winning Kidjo, while MarchFourth Marching Band is one of the most requested bands in the festival’s history.
Local Louisiana acts include Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, Lil Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, Bonsoir Catin, Corey Ledet & his Zydeco Band and the Lost Bayou Ramblers.
The free festival will be held April 22 to 26 at Cajun Field.
For more information visit: http://festivalinternational.org/

Call for special budget session falls short
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A Houma area lawmaker has given up on efforts to convene a special legislative session targeting Louisiana’s ongoing budget troubles.
Republican Rep. Joe Harrison said Wednesday he couldn’t get enough support from his colleagues to call the 14-day special session that he sought in a January petition.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley said they opposed a special session. They cited the cost of the extra gathering and said Harrison’s proposals could be considered in the regular legislative session that begins April 13.
Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion shortfall for the budget year that begins July 1.
Harrison wanted to remove special budget protections that leave colleges and health services more vulnerable to cuts and to review tax break programs that siphon money from the state treasury.

Driver pleads not guilty in deaths of 2 teenage girls
ST. MARTINVILLE (AP) — A Breaux Bridge man accused in an October hit-and-run that killed two teenage girls and injured another, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Jeremy Abraham, still wearing a neck brace after suffering a cracked vertebrae in the Oct. 30 accident, said nothing in court Wednesday but entered the plea through his attorney, Peter Barbee.
The trial date was set for July 21.
Fifteen-year-old Cornasha Flugence and 14-year-old Kylee Henry were walking to school when they were hit and killed.
The 32-year-old Abraham faces two counts of vehicular homicide and a count of first-degree negligent injuring in the incident.

‘Angola 3’ inmate wins another round at appeals court
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One of the state prisoners known as the “Angola Three” has won another round in court as he fights charges arising from the 1972 stabbing death of a prison guard.
Albert Woodfox’s conviction in that death had been overturned by a federal district judge. That judge’s decision was upheld in November by a unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In an order dated Tuesday, the appeals court refused a state request for another hearing on the issue.
The conviction was thrown out because Woodfox’s 1993 indictment was tainted by racial discrimination in the grand jury foreman selection process.
Woodfox and two other state prisoners became known as the Angola Three due to their long stretches in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
Other members of the Angola Three were prisoners Robert King and Herman Wallace.
Wallace, convicted with Woodfox of murder in the death of guard Brent Miller, died last fall only days after a judge freed him and granted him a new trial. King was released in 2001 after his conviction in the death of a fellow inmate in 1973 was reversed.
Woodfox has long maintained his innocence in Miller’s death.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell did not specify the state’s next move Wednesday.
“While we are disappointed in the denial of a rehearing, this in no way changes the fact that two juries have found that inmate Albert Woodfox undeniably murdered Corrections Officer Brent Miller in 1972,” Caldwell said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to fight to ensure that he is held fully accountable for his actions.”
Jasmine Heiss, of Amnesty International USA, said Wednesday the state should give up prosecution of Woodfox, who turns 68 on Feb. 19.
She said Caldwell should stop pursuing expensive appeals in the case. She also called on Gov. Bobby Jindal to get involved.
“We’d like him to ask the attorney general to stop wasting the state’s resources,” Heiss said. Jindal’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Woodfox is being held at Louisiana’s Wade Correctional Center, where, his lawyers say, officials have begun carrying out body cavity searches up to six times a day, despite his being in isolation most of the time. His attorneys are working in state court to end the searches.